The Essays of Michael Seigneur de Montaigne: Translated Into English ...

Let none but Beasts Blood stain the Theatre* And no more Homicides be acted there.

It was, in Truth, a wonderful Example, and of Very great Advantage for the Instruction of the People, to fee every Day before their Eyes a hundred, two hundred j nay, a thousand Couples of Men armed against one another, cut one another to Pieces with such Intrepidity, that they were never heard to utter so much as one Syllable of Weakness or Commiseration; never seen to turn back, nor so much as to make one cowardly Motion to evade a Blow, but rather exposed their Necks to the Adversaries Sword, and presented themselves to receive the Stroke. And many of them, when mortally wounded, have sent to ask the Spectators, If they were satisfied with their Behaviour? and then they lay down to give up the Ghost upon the Place. It was nbt enough for them to Fight and Die bravely, but chearfully too; Insomuch that they were hissed and cursed, if they made any Dispute about receiving their Death. The very Maids themselves egged them on.

The ancient Romans only irnployed Criminals In this Les-, son; but they afterwards imployed innocent Slaves in thd Work, and even Freemen too, who sold themselves"' to this Effect; nay, moreover, Senators and Knight* of Rome ■, and also Women :'. '.'.'."..',' .".'

■ Amidst these Tumults and Alarms, The tender Sex, unskiird in Arms, Challeng'd each other to engage, And fought, as Men, with equal Rage.

which I should think strange and incredible, if we were not accustomed every Day to fee, in our ' own Wars, many Thousands of Men, of other Nations, staking their Blood and their Lives for Money, often in Quarrels wherein they have no manner of Concern.

CHAP. XXIV. Of the Roman Grandeur.

IWI L L only fay a Word or two of this infinite Argument, to shew the Simplicity of those who compare the pitiful Grandeurs of these Times to that of Rome. In the seventh Book of Cicero's Familiar Epistles, (but let the Grammarians put out that Surname of Familiar, if they please* for, in Truth, it is not very proper"; and they who, instead of familiar, have substituted ad famitiares, may gather something to justify them for so doing,

* Witness the Swiss, who, though of the seme Country, and perhaps of the fame Family, serve one against aaotjier, for Pay, in the Annies of France, Holland, &c. ''

out of what Suetonius says, in the Life of Cæsar, * That

* he had a Volume of Letters of his, ad familiar es') there is one directed to Cæsar, being then in Gaul, wherein Cicero repeats these Words, which were in the End of another Letter that Cæsar had writ to him: 'As for Mdr

* cus Furim, whom you have recommended to me, I Witt

* make him King of Gaul; and, if you would have me

* advance any other Friend of yours, fend him to me V It was no new Thing for a mere Citizen of Rome, as Cæ<far then was, to dispose of Kingdoms j for he took away that of King Deiotarus from him, to give it to a Gentleman of the City of Pergamum, called Mithridates w. And they who writ his Life, record several Cities by him soW; and Suetonius fays, * That he had, at once, from King

* Ptolomy, near 6000 Talents, or three Millions and six c hundred thousand Crowns,' which was almost the fame as selling him his own Kingdom.

Tot Galatæ, tot Pontus, tot Lydia nummis \

i. e.

Such Sums of Money did he raise, as these, From Pontus, Lydia, and the Galates.

Mark Anthony said, 'That the Grandeur of the People of

* Rome was not so much seen in what they

* took, as in what they gave V Yet, many jfZdtf Years before Anthony, they had dethroned hit Conquests, one amongst the rest with so wonderful Au- by a Letter thority, that, in all the Roman History, I -£TM^°" have not observed any Thing that more denotes the Height of their Power. Antiochus posiesled all Egypt, and was, moreover, ready to conquer Cyprus, and other Appendixes of that Empire; when, being upon the Progress of his Victories, C. Popilius came to him from the Senate, and, at their first Meeting, refused to take him by the Hand, till he had read his Letters, which after the King had perused, and told him, he would consider of

I i 2 them,

"Lib. vii. Ep. 5. Ciceronis Cæsari Imper.

w Cic. de Divinat. lib. ii. c. 37.

* Claud, in Eutrop. lib. i. c. 203.

7 Plutarch, in the Life of Anthony, c. 8

them, Popilius made a Circle about him with the Stick he had in his Hand, faying, c Return me an Answer, that

* I may carry it back to the Senate, before thou stirrest ■*. 0ut of this Circle \* Antiochus, astonished at the Roughjiess of so urgent a Command, after a little Pause, replied, j* I will obey the Senate's Command j' and then it was that Popilius saluted him as a Friend to the People of Rome. After having quitted Claim to so great a Monarchy, and in such a Torrent of successful Fortune, upon three Words in Writing -, in Earnest he had Reason, as lie did, to fend the Senate Word, by his Ambassadors,

* that he had received their Order with the fame Respect,

* as if it had arrived from the immortal Gods '.'

-„ All the Kingdoms, that Augustus gained by the Right Wh the Ro- °f Conquest, he either restored to those who .mans restored had lost them, or presented them to Strantheir conquered gers. And Tacitus, in Reference to this, Kingdoms to speaking of Cogidunus, King of England, gives us a wonderful Instance of that infinite Power: 'The Romans, fays he, were, from all Antiquity, ac

* customed to leave the Kings they had subdued, in Pos

* session of their Kingdoms under their Authority, that

* they might have even Kings to be their Slaves: Ut ha

* berent instrument a servitutis, et Regesb. 'Tis likely, that Solyman, whom we have seen make a Gift of Hungary^ and other Principalities, had therein more Respect to this Considerationi than to that he was wont to alledge, viz.

* That he was glutted and overcharged with so many 'Monarchies, and so much Dominion, as his own Va

* lour, or that of his Ancestors, had acquired.'

z Tit. Liv. lib. xiv. C. 14. • Idem, ibid. c. 23. b Idem, in

Vita Julii Agricolæ.

CHAP.
CHAP. XXV. 4

■ • -j

Not to counterfeit Sickness."

"i

THERE is a choice Epigram in Martial^ for he has of all forts, where he pleasantly Gout counter- ■ tells the Story of Cœlius, who, to avoid mak- fib became a ing his court to some great Men of Rome, to realGout- go to their Levee, and to attend them Abroad, pretend- ed to have the Gout; and, the better to colour it, anoint- ed his Legs, had them swathed up, and perfectly coun- terfeited both the Gesture and Countenance of a gouty Person; till, in the End, Fortune did him the Kindness to give him the Gout in Earnest.

Tantum cura poteft et ars doloris, Dejiit fingere Cœlius podagram c,

/'. e. The Power of Counterfeiting is so great, Cælius has ceas'd the Gout to counterfeit.

I think I have read, somewhere in Appian, a Story, like this, of one who, to escape the Proscriptions of the Triumviri of Rome, and the better £"V£>%to be concealed from the Discovery of those came really who pursued him, having masked himself in blind in one a Disguise, did also add this Invention, * to fj*j af,erht1counterfeit having but one Eye; but, when feUedlt, ** 'he came to have a little more Liberty, and

* went to take off the Plaister he had a great while worn

* over his Eye, he found he had totally lost the Sight os'

* it.' 'Tis possible, that the Action of Sight was dulled, for having been so long without Exercise, and that the Optic Power was wholly retired into the other Eye: For. we evidently perceive, that the Eye we keep shut, sends; some Part of its Virtue to its Fellow, which thereby swells, and grows bigger; moreover, the fitting still, with the